In a tight race for the gubernatorial nomination in Wisconsin, an establishment-backed Democrat emerged victorious over a formidable leftist contender.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley narrowly defeated Francesca Hong by a margin of just 3,211 votes on Tuesday evening. This unexpected outcome came after market forecasters had dubbed the progressive candidate the likely winner.

Crowley’s triumph was a cause for celebration at Democratic Party headquarters, where there had been concerns that Hong’s meteoric rise signaled a growing wave of progressive influence—a development considered advantageous for Republicans.

Ultimately, Crowley’s victory was anchored in his pragmatic ‘Badger Basics’ initiative, which focused on strengthening labor unions, providing affordable housing solutions, and expanding healthcare access.

In contrast, Hong, affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, championed significant systemic economic reforms throughout her campaign.

She has called for scrapping Thanksgiving, defunding the police, abolishing ICE and doing away with the US Senate. Hong has since softened or abandoned several of those positions.

Her politics were considered so toxic that Republican-linked money flowed into her campaign, on the calculation that Wisconsin voters would recoil from her in November.

Even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, the progressive movement’s two biggest names, withheld their endorsements.

Hong could have requested a recount since Crowley’s margin of victory was less than 1 percentage point. But because it was wider than 0.25 points, Hong’s campaign would have had to pay for it. 

Crowley got 313,321 votes, or 39.8 percent, beating out Hong who received 310,110 or 39.4 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press.

Hong attracted backing from Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and California Congressman Ro Khanna, as well as former Ohio state senator and prominent Bernie Sanders ally Nina Turner.

But Democratic strategists are now breathing a sigh of relief as Crowley is given much better odds of capturing swing voters in purple Wisconsin come November.

He will face US Representative Tom Tiffany, a Donald Trump-backed congressman from northern Wisconsin, on November 3.

Limited head-to-head polling shows Crowley narrowly ahead, while broader prediction markets gave the GOP an edge – largely because they’d expected Hong to be the nominee.

Crowley’s comeback was one of the campaign’s defining twists after suspending his bid in July, endorsing Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, then returning after her withdrawal over campaign-finance mismanagement with the backing of outgoing Governor Tony Evers.

Evers argued that Crowley gave Democrats their strongest chance of holding a pivotal swing-state governorship in November.

The result is also historic as Crowley will become Wisconsin’s first black governor if elected.

Hong had entered the final stretch as the polling frontrunner, propelled by especially strong support among younger Democrats and voters drawn to her populist, Socialist agenda.

But Crowley’s victory underscores the continuing power of Wisconsin’s institutional Democratic coalition, combining organized labor, Milwaukee-area elected officials and the outgoing governor’s endorsement.

The contest is already shaping up as one of the most closely watched of the 2026 cycle.

Wisconsin remains a genuine swing state — Trump carried it by less than a point in 2024 — and both parties view the governorship as a critical piece of midterm leverage.

Crowley’s more moderate profile gives Democrats a clearer path to holding the seat, but Tiffany’s deep northern Wisconsin base and Trump’s ongoing influence mean neither side can take anything for granted.

Paul Child’s routine drive took an unexpected turn when he encountered a mysterious stranger by the railroad tracks near his Washington home. Twice, he passed this unknown figure. Just minutes later, smoke billowed from the area where the man had disappeared into the bushes, sparking a sequence of events that led authorities to a suspected wildfire arsonist.

Freshly released bodycam footage reveals officers quickly mobilizing to evacuate Child’s family. The footage shows them escorting him, his grandson, and the grandson’s friend to a field for a showup identification after detaining an individual fitting the stranger’s description.

As they awaited confirmation at the scene, the bodycam picked up an officer noting that the suspect carried “a whole fanny pack full of matches.” This clue proved pivotal to the investigation.

However, the video does not provide visual proof of the matches or detail how they were discovered in the suspect’s possession.

Child said he and the other witnesses – his grandson and his grandson’s friend – were not told about the alleged matches or other items before they were asked to view the detained man.

“We thought he had a backpack,” Child told News Media. “They didn’t say anything to us anyway about the fanny pack with matches, cigarettes [and] I guess lighter in it.”

Child told News Media that he, his grandson and the grandson’s friend spotted a man twice near railroad tracks close to the apparent fire origin. The second time, Child said, the man’s behavior appeared unusual.

“He was kind of bent over and looked like he was doing something in the bushes,” Child said. “He got up, saw us. When he saw us, he turned to face us and kind of was pacing back and forth nervously.”

Child said there was no smoke when the group last saw the man. Within about 10 minutes of returning home, however, he said smoke began rising about a half-mile away.

Bodycam footage from the Airway Heights Police Department shows smoke billowing in the distance as Officer Pace speaks with Child’s family about evacuating. The officer later tells them police may have detained “your guy” and that they could be asked to take part in a showup.

A field showup is an in-person identification procedure in which witnesses view a person detained shortly after an incident.

While the footage does not show the identification, Child said Pace escorted him and the two boys to a location about a mile and a half from his home.

“We pulled off to the side of the road and they got an individual out from the back of the … Spokane County deputy car,” Child said. “We looked at him, and all three of us gave them [a] positive, 100% positive ID that’s who we’d seen in the area just before the fire started.”

Child said he and the two teen witnesses positively identified the detained man during the field showup. Authorities later identified the man as Aaron Forrest Farinacci.

The Aug. 1 field showup did not immediately lead to charges. Farinacci was released after the witnesses identified the detained man, then was arrested on charges two days later, on Aug. 3.

Child said he did not initially realize Farinacci had been released.

“I was like, well, thank God, because … I thought they had him detained the whole time. I didn’t realize they didn’t have probable cause to hold him for a couple days. … He could walk right back up that road,” Child said.

Farinacci is accused of starting the Old Trails Fire, one of three blazes that have burned across Spokane and Stevens counties since Aug. 1. The Old Trails, Fairview and Autumn Lane fires had burned a combined 10,002 acres and damaged or destroyed more than 920 structures, Spokane fire officials reported Monday.

Farinacci, who was initially held on $1 million bail, appeared in court Thursday, when a judge doubled his bail to $2 million. He also faces four additional arson charges after court documents alleged he admitted to setting 25 fires in the area since 2025.

Court documents reviewed by News Media allege Farinacci monitored weather apps to identify ideal fire conditions and built a delayed ignition device to start the Old Trails Fire.

Although Farinacci initially denied involvement in the Old Trails Fire during questioning after his Aug. 3 arrest, court documents allege he later confessed to planning and setting the blaze. The documents say he planned the fire for two weeks.

Investigators allege Farinacci built a time-delay device from paper, matches, cigarettes and rubber bands modeled after one used by serial arsonist John Leonard Orr. Court documents also allege he deliberately set simultaneous fires at other times to distract and thin out emergency response crews.

As the wildfire spread, Child’s family gathered pets and belongings before evacuating their home.

“It was pretty chaotic,” Child said. “I forgot my medications. We forgot leashes for the dogs or dog food and all that stuff.”

Child said the flames came no closer than about a quarter-mile from his home, but he feared a shift in the wind could have sent the fast-moving fire toward his property within minutes.

Looking back, Child said he sees his decision to alert police as only one part of the response.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to stop him from doing what he did,” Child said, adding that he believes he played only a small part in the man being caught. “It was kind of like, well, good. At least he’s off the street.”

“I mean, he wasn’t going to stop,” Child added. “Fortunately, he didn’t kill anybody this time, but I imagine his luck on that was going to run out if he continued to set fires.”

When embarking on the journey of buying a home, two paramount considerations often come to mind: the safety of the neighborhood and the quality of the local public schools, especially if you already have or anticipate having children.

However, during the Obama administration, there was an effort to curb real estate agents from providing answers to these crucial questions, as the focus shifted towards promoting “diversity” at the expense of addressing safety and educational quality.

This year, President Donald Trump’s administration rolled back these restrictions, yet the repercussions of the policies instituted by Joe Biden’s team continue to be felt by many.

Compounding the issue, state regulations in places like New York are still silencing real estate agents, inhibiting them from freely discussing vital information about crime rates and school performance with prospective homebuyers.

Intriguingly, the Biden administration made meddling with home buying one of its early actions after taking office.

Six days after he was sworn into office, Biden issued his directive establishing enforcement priorities for the Department of Housing and Urban Development aimed at scaring real-estate agents into remaining silent on two of the subjects most important to their clients.

“Diverse and inclusive communities strengthen our democracy,” the executive memorandum began.

What mom or dad wants their community to be “inclusive” of failing schools?

Who wants “diversity” to mean mixing criminals with innocent people?

Black families don’t want to live in dangerous or educationally dead-end neighborhoods any more than people of any other color do.

Yet too many progressives believe racial equality is best achieved by demolishing standards for everyone.

That was the effect of Biden’s memo, which made clear that racial politics and the doctrine of “disparate impact” would guide HUD’s enforcement of federal housing laws.

The major online real-estate companies understood immediately what was being demanded of them.

Realtor.com and Zillow stopped providing crime data, while Redfin — going out of its way to embrace the party line — posted a blog proclaiming, “Neighborhood crime data doesn’t belong on real estate sites.”

The National Association of Realtors put up a webpage in early 2023 titled “How to handle client questions about schools and neighborhoods,” which told realtors to point homebuyers to other sources of information rather than providing the facts themselves.

The page is larded with the jargon of diversity, equity and inclusion — but it also testifies to the association’s worry that fair-housing laws would be interpreted aggressively, and that realtors who did tell their clients too much would run the risk of punishment.

In April, Trump’s HUD announced that realtors and other real-estate agents should not feel intimidated: “The Fair Housing Act does not require withholding useful information on school quality and crime statistics,” the department proclaimed.

The “Dear Colleague” letter from Assistant Secretary Craig Trainor went into considerable detail to “strongly urge” the real-estate industry “to revisit ethics training materials and reconsider public statements that stifle real estate agent speech.”

But the New York Association of Realtors, for one, says it can’t do that — because its members “may be subject to liability under (New York state) law” if they speak frankly to homebuyers about schools and crime.

How many voters know some state governments — and, under the last Democratic administration, the federal government — are muzzling real-estate agents in this way?

How many know how easily the industry rolled over when Biden decided to put homebuyers’ safety and their children’ s education at risk?

What the Biden administration did was unethical, and the industry did a disservice to its clients by giving in — though perhaps the prospect of selling more homes in bad neighborhoods appealed to the least scrupulous members of the profession.

Buying a home is a trust-intensive process: It’s not only expensive, it ranks alongside marriage as one the most consequential decisions anyone can make, holding the potential for decades of happiness or misery.

Buying a home is buying a future.

It isn’t right to withhold any information a family needs about a prospective neighborhood, and state laws as well as federal ones must put homebuyers — of all races — first, above any political commitment to abstractions like diversity and inclusion.

The point of shielding information about crime and schools is to get more people to buy homes where they otherwise wouldn’t want to live.

What could be more wicked, more destructive, than that?

The intrepid journalist Helen Andrews, who’s never afraid of a controversy, deserves credit for calling attention to this corruption of the real-estate industry in a recent essay for the web magazine Compact.

It’s a big story, one that ought to be on voters’ minds as they consider the state and local elections, as well as federal ones, coming up in November.

If Americans don’t want their real-estate providers gagged, they must speak up themselves — at the ballot box.

Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review.

Jodie Foster has once again become a topic of interest for John Hinckley Jr., the man infamous for his 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, which he claimed was an effort to capture her attention.

During a virtual appearance on The Mark Joseph Show podcast, set to air this Wednesday, the 71-year-old Hinckley conveyed his well-wishes to the acclaimed 63-year-old actress.

In an exclusive clip shared by Entertainment Weekly, Hinckley expressed, “I just wish Jodie Foster well.”

“I don’t really watch her films, but I hope she is doing well,” he added. “That’s all I wish for her—good health and a good life.”

The Daily Mail has reached out to Foster’s representative for any comments regarding Hinckley’s message.

It comes 45 years after Hinckley shot then-president Reagan at a Hilton hotel in Washington DC.

Hinckley was confined to a mental hospital for more than two decades after a jury found him not guilty in the shooting by reason of insanity. 

He was granted unconditional release from all remaining restrictive conditions in June 2022.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman made the ruling, agreeing to free Hinckley from restrictions as long as he continued to do well.

Hinckley had been confined to a mental hospital in Washington for more than 20 years.

Then, in 2003 Friedman began allowing him to live for longer stretches in the community with requirements like attending therapy and restrictions on where he could travel. He began living in Virginia full-time in 2016.

‘I wanted to have a union with Jodie Foster and live the rest of my life with her and all these things that, of course, were delusional,’ Hinckley told host Mark Joseph in EW’s clip. 

‘But I was believing those things at the time. So the best outcome would have been a union with Jodie Foster… in this life.’

Hinckley explained, ‘I thought she would, you know, after things settled down, join me wherever I was.’

‘I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be in jail or the hospital or what. But after things settled down, I had this notion that she was gonna join me wherever I was.’

Hinckley was 25 and suffering from acute psychosis when he fired a .22 long rifle bullet that ricocheted off the presidential limousine and struck Reagan in the torso.

It punctured a lung and caused serious internal bleeding.

The assassination attempt also paralyzed then-Press Secretary James Brady, who died in 2014, and wounded a police officer and a Secret Service agent.

Hinckley was desperate to impress Foster after seeing her in the 1976 movie Taxi Driver.

In the upcoming interview, Joseph asked him if the movie star could have been ‘a potential target’ of his gun violence. 

‘She definitely could have been a target. It’s just, fate went the other way,’ he replied, adding, ‘As fate turns out, it was Reagan instead of her.’

In June 2024, Foster made a rare comment about the ordeal, telling Interview magazine: ‘I’m finally able to admit that the one bit of theater I did when I was in college, there was so much trauma involved in it.’

‘The play happened in two weekends, and I did the first weekend, and in between the first weekend and the second weekend, John Hinckley shot the president… He shot him in order to impress me, and he had written letters to me, so it was a big moment in my life.’